by Rob Jones
“But what have you got?” Scarlet asked, sighing.
“Hey! He’s doing his best!” said Sophie. “I’d like to see what you could come up with.”
“I’d like to see my fist in your face, but...”
“Enough, the two of you!” Ryan snapped. He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to energize himself. “As a matter of fact I was able to find a few buzzwords relating to the project on conspiracy theory websites.”
“Oh God,” Scarlet said. “Not the tin-foil hat brigade, Ryan! This is serious.”
“It’s a very reliable forum, actually,” he said patiently, as if explaining to an infant why putting your hand in a fire is a bad idea. “From there, I was able to get some kind of idea about what we’re talking about and managed to hack some intercepts between the US Navy and an American professor of physics in California.”
“You see now what good work he does, no?” Sophie said.
Ryan reached out and touched Sophie’s hand. She smiled and rubbed his shoulder.
“All right, all right,” Scarlet said, seeing the contact. “Either get a room or get on with the briefing.”
“It’s not much more than we’ve already got. All I can say from reading the intercepts is that the device is definitely real, definitely works and was definitely stolen by Sheng. They also make it clear that if this thing is used it will annihilate an entire city and according to InsideMan, if it’s anything like...”
“Sorry?” Scarlet said. “But who the hell is InsideMan?”
“One of my hacking colleagues.”
“One of your nerd friends?”
“He’s an expert hacker and one of the finest conspiracy theorists in the world,” Ryan said with pride.
“You mean he sits at his computer desk in his underpants surrounded by empty takeaway cartons and wishing for a girlfriend?”
“I mean,” Ryan said with exaggerated slowness as if talking to a young child again, “that he has a very good track record on predicting natural disasters, for one thing.”
“Explain.”
“I mean that not all natural disasters are what they seem, despite McShain’s protests, and that’s why when this came up I contacted him. It seems right up his street.”
“Have you ever met this guy, Ryan?” Scarlet said.
“Of course not. We’re all anonymous.”
“He could be bloody anyone then!”
“And?”
“And he could be giving you disinformation!”
“Maybe, but our lives don't depend on what he gives me. All he tells me is that if a big global city has a major earthquake in the next few days then the authorities will simply tell the public it was a natural disaster while in the background they’re racing around trying to find and either kill or bribe the perpetrator.”
“Not sure how this helps us.”
“Well for one thing, it tells us we can’t trust McShain, because in Hong Kong he told Hawke outright that the US has never used the machine to artificially trigger quakes.”
Scarlet raised her eyes from Ryan’s laptop screen and glanced at McShain, now talking in animated fashion with Jason Lao. “You can’t trust anyone, Ryan, didn’t you know that?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dragon Island
Lea Donovan’s mind was burning with questions and fears as Sheng’s private jet roared south along the Chinese coast. She had just woken up from the chloroform dished out to the three of them by Luk back in Beijing, and she had the headache to prove it. Sheng himself, with Luk and the Lotus were up front, talking quietly in rapid Mandarin. She didn’t understand a word of it. Either side of her were Hawke and Han, both still out cold.
The gentle hum of the luxury cabin and the softness of the leather seat almost made her forget she was a prisoner of these people, and as she watched the clouds flick past below her, occasionally revealing a snatched-glance of a yet another Chinese city, she was almost enjoying the flight.
Until she remembered why all this was happening. Until the hideous black ghosts of the past like Hugo Zaugg and Heinrich Baumann crept into her imagination like poisonous shadows. She shuddered when she thought of Baumann, on fire in the wine cellar, and when she closed her eyes she could sometimes feel Zaugg’s hands around her throat as the gondola swung in the snowstorm.
From what she had heard from Sir Richard Eden and Lexi Zhang, these people were even more dangerous, and now she and Hawke were disarmed and in their power. Would they kill them before they had a chance to escape or fight back? Would Hawke die before he knew the truth about what she had been concealing from him?
Lea was more sure than ever that Hawke deserved to know the truth, but she knew it wasn’t her place to tell him. As she looked at him, knocked unconscious by a brutal pistol-whipping delivered courtesy of Mr Luk, she began to wonder if he could be more than a lover.
Since their first night together in the Swiss Alps, Lea Donovan knew he was the kind of man she could really fall in love with – maybe even spend the rest of her life with, but there was always the issue of what she had kept from him. The way he had dismissed her concerns over what had happened in Syria had meant a lot to her, but this was different once again. This was out of her hands. How would he react to yet more deceit?
Slowly, Hawke began to moan and come back to life.
Lea leaned forward and hushed him.
“Don’t let them know you’re awake, Joe,” she said in a gentle whisper.
“Where the hell are we?” he said, confused. He tried to rub his head and then realized his hands were tied behind his back with plastic cable ties. “Damn it!”
“We’re in Sheng’s jet. That Luk bastard knocked you out back at the airport – do you remember any of that?”
“Yes... it’s coming back to me. Another private jet, eh?” He hauled himself up a little and stretched his neck to relax the muscles. His eye was swollen and bruised from the beating Luk had given him earlier, while he was held back by some of Sheng’s men, and it felt like at least one of his ribs was broken. “I’m starting to feel like a rock star.”
“Sure,” Lea said, “rock stars on their way to an execution. Real glamorous.”
Despite the pain, Hawke chuckled.
“So where are we going?” Hawke asked. “Shanghai?”
Lea shook her head. “No, we’re going to his island just off the coast of Shanghai – Dragon Island.”
Hawke frowned. “The place where he tortures his victims to death?”
“So he says.”
“I heard they’re having trouble getting tourists there,” said Hawke. “Something about the screams putting people off their crispy duck.”
“Is that another one of your jokes?”
“I’m sorry. Just have a headache right now and really starting to hate flying. What about him?” Hawke nodded over at Han. “I wouldn’t want to be Sheng if he ever gets loose.”
“Out cold the whole flight.”
“You think your buddy Richard knows where we are?”
“Finally he asks an intelligent tactical question!”
“Well?”
She shrugged. “No way to tell, but I think so. The emergency alert I texted him back at Jenny Tsao’s place would have triggered a protocol response and the tracker I have in my boot means he could well know where we are if it’s all working right.”
“That’s great news. Hopefully Eden and Lao can get some kind of a force together and get to the island. We’re going to need to get away from these idiots and make the assault on Sheng’s fortress by Lao’s men as easy as possible.”
“Plus we have to work out where Sheng is going to deploy that damned Tesla thingy as well, and so we’ll need to divide our forces into two, right?”
“Finally she gives me an intelligent tactical answer.”
The Lotus stepped toward Hawke and gave him a twisted grin. “Any more talking and I’ll gag you both – got it, action man?” She took hold of his hair and yanked his head back, kissing him
roughly on the mouth.
Lea recoiled in disgust. “Hey! That’s my boyfriend and you’re not his type!”
Hawke stared at the Lotus hard. “She’s right, you’re not really my type at all. I’ve always preferred my women a little less psychopathic.”
“Too bad.” The Lotus flicked a quick glance at Lea, then scowled as she powered her boot into Hawke’s stomach.
Hawke doubled over, wheezing in pain as he struggled to suck the air back into his winded lungs.
The Lotus turned to Lea, who was watching Hawke squirming in agony on the soft carpet of the jet, helpless to comfort him with her hands tied behind her back. “Maybe I should have kissed you instead?”
“Maybe you should just fuck off and jump out this plane instead?”
The Lotus took a step forward and grabbed Lea’s hair with her hand. She leaned in close, as if to kiss her, but instead spat in her face. Laughing, she roughly released Lea from her grip and turned on her heel. “If you knew what was in store for you, you’d beg me to throw you out the plane, believe me.”
The Lotus smirked and strutted back to the front of the jet.
Hawke tried to snap the cable ties with brute force, but with no luck. “I wonder what she means by that?”
“Oh, I expect she means they have a night of Karaoke planned for us.” Lea gave him a sarcastic half-smile and rolled her eyes. “And by the way, you didn’t exactly object to that absolutely disgusting example of sexual harassment in the workplace a minute ago.”
“I couldn’t do anything about it!” he protested. “My hands were literally tied behind my back.”
“Oh yeah, sure. How many times have I heard that one before?”
“Eh?” Hawke looked confused. “I’m guessing absolutely zero times, am I right?”
Lea made no reply other than to close her eyes and turn her head away from Hawke.
“I’ll take that as an admission of defeat.”
A long silence.
“I said,” Hawke repeated, “that I’ll take that as an...”
“Well don’t, because it isn’t. Eejit.”
“I cannot believe you’re actually jealous because one of Sheng’s nutcase minions forced a kiss on me.” Hawke tried to suppress a cynical laugh.
“I am not jealous.”
“What are you then?”
Lea sighed. “Oh... I would say disappointed, but that would imply I expected more of you, so let’s just go with I’m disgusted with you, Joe Hawke.”
“Uh-oh!”
“What?” Lea craned her neck down the aisle expecting to see the Lotus on her way back to them.
“You used both by names,” he said smugly. “That always means at least half an hour of nagging and whining.”
Lea sighed. “If my hands weren’t tied behind my back right now...”
“What?”
“I’d beat your arse, that’s what, Joe Hawke.”
“I’d like to see you try, Donovan.”
“Uh-oh!”
“What?” Hawke tried to lift himself up to see if anyone was approaching them.
“You just called me by my surname. That always means at least an hour and a half of bullshit and bravado.”
Hawke smiled. Lea was a keeper, as his mother used to say.
*
Sheng’s private jet began to descend just as it passed the Shanghai metropolis outside the starboard windows. Hawke felt the pain from Luk’s earlier beating thud through his upper body as the plane banked heavily to port. He knew that somewhere ahead of them lay the infamous private island that Nightingale had warned him about.
His hands were tied behind his back with several cable ties so tight they were restricting the blood flow. They had done the same to Lea and Han. Now, as the plane prepared to land, the Lotus rejoined them and sat opposite them with a smirking face.
She aimed the muzzle of an automatic pistol at them and directed some fast Mandarin to the front of the aircraft. She glanced at Han and pulled a second gun out to cover him when he awoke from his blackout. Hawke could see trust wasn't a big commodity in the world of Sheng Fang.
“When are you pricks going to bring around the peanuts!” Lea said. “We’re almost landing and not one sodding Coke! I’m going to complain, you know!”
He smiled.
The Lotus did not, but instead got up and kicked Lea in the stomach. She doubled over in agony.
“We’re landing now,” the Lotus said flatly. “I want you where I can see you all.”
“But I don’t think she has a first class ticket,” Hawke said.
“You don’t want to be mixing with steerage trash like me, you mean?” Lea said with an honest smile.
The Lotus was unmoved by the banter. “You sure do talk a lot of shit for two people who are about to die in the most horrible of ways.”
A thin smile danced on her mouth, all crooked and black lipstick. Her cold hate-filled eyes watched Hawke and Lea as if they were a couple of insects.
“What are you talking about, you bitch?” said Lea.
She made no reply, but turned to watch Han as he began to come back to life.
“Where...am...I?”
“You’re on Psycho Airways,” Lea said, nodding in the direction of the Lotus. Han craned his neck and watched her sitting a few feet in front of him. His face reddened with rage and thoughts of revenge. “I swear I will gut you like a fish, and all the others who murdered my sister will suffer the same fate!”
“Get in line, boyo,” said Lea.
The Lotus laughed and scratched her leg with the muzzle of one of the pistols.
“I know how you feel, Han, believe me,” Hawke said. “But this isn’t the time. We need to keep our heads clear for the fight to come. When we get to Dragon Island we’re going to need all of our wits about us just to survive, never mind getting revenge.”
Han’s eyes narrowed with hatred. As the plane banked and began to descend, neither Lea nor Hawke thought they would have much luck stopping Han from avenging his sister’s brutal murder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
On their way out to the Jeeps, Scarlet, Hart and Karlsson were a few paces ahead of Lexi, Ryan and Sophie when a familiar face stepped into view at the end of the corridor.
It was Vincent Reno, known to the wider world as Reaper.
Scarlet frowned and put her hands on her hips. “About time you turned up, you lazy French bastard.”
“Better a lazy French bastard than a cold English cow.”
For a second they stared at each other, and then laughed and embraced for a few moments before the former French Foreign Legion paratrooper pushed her away and pulled a cigarette from a crumpled packet in his back pocket. “Don’t get too close to me, I’m easily turned on. Who is this?”
“Brad Karlsson, CIA.”
They shook hands and Reaper struck a match on his belt, ready to light the cigarette.
A man in Chinese military fatigues stepped up to the bear-like Frenchman. “Hey! No smoking here!” He took the cigarette from Reaper’s mouth with a scowl and took it away.
Reaper pinned the man to the wall by his neck and slowly retrieved the cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it up. “Lucky I’m in a good mood today, oui?”
Scarlet and Karlsson laughed, but Reaper was still scowling as they took their seats in the vehicles. “So your message said Hawke had been captured?”
“Yes, in Beijing.” Scarlet’s voice was low, and measured. She was in control again. “A surprise attack in a house they were in. It belonged to a professor who was translating the secret chapter for us. She was killed in the attack.”
Reaper sighed. “Too bad. At least he’ll owe me one when I save him though.”
Scarlet smirked at the thought. “I was thinking the same thing. Not like him to get caught out like that. He’s been out of the game for too long. Maybe time to get him back inside.”
“What do you mean?”
“Forget it,” Scarlet said. “Let’s get goin
g.” She turned to Ryan as the Jeeps raced toward the airport.
After a few moment of contemplation, Reaper turned to Ryan. “I hear this Sheng guy is looking for the same thing Zaugg wanted?”
Ryan nodded. “Pretty much, only he’s getting much closer than Zaugg ever did. He’s playing with fire...”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would anyone with immortal power feel the need to create a map that leads to the location of their power? If such a thing ever fell into the wrong hands then you could lose access to that source and die, or any number of terrible things. So at the moment there are still more questions than answers.”
“Which is always the way,” Sophie said, tying her hair back. “Always the way...”
*
When Hawke landed, a host of serious men and women were on the tarmac to meet Sheng Fang, some of them in business suits and others in military fatigues. Han was dragged out first and taken away by two men in fatigues and the Lotus. She looked like she was relishing her work, and looking forward to torturing the monk for as much information as she could get.
Hawke and Lea’s welcoming committee consisted of a dozen men in camos with assault rifles.
“I see our reputation precedes us,” Lea said, frowning.
“I’m more worried about Han. Now they have him, they not only have the missing chapter that’s tattooed on his back but all the knowledge Jenny Tsao gave him before they killed her in the raid. I know I can take whatever interrogation shit they throw at me, and maybe you too, but Han... he’s a monk for God’s sake.”
“I wouldn’t bet on him cracking,” Lea said. “He seems pretty tough to me – look at the way you told me he let his own sister die before breaking his sacred vows not to reveal the location of the missing chapter. Don't get much tougher than that, Joe. Could you do it?”
Hawke made no reply. He knew he couldn’t answer without disappointing her. If he said yes he would look like a cold-hearted robot, and if he said no he would look weak, the kind of guy you couldn’t trust in a combat situation, or at a time like this.